Is Indian education failing in inculcating values?

Indian education scene: Farce, comedy & tragedy  by  V GANGADHAR

There cannot be people's democracy without education. India could flaunt numbers to show to the world that we are serious about education. The education scene was widely covered in the media and those who followed it came across situations which were farcical, comic and tragic. Of late, there had been more of tragedy in the education scenario. Farce first. Sometimes even in school, the education imparted led to some unique enterprises though it could be questioned if the end product was the result of the education imparted. `` The Hindu'' reported that students of the Government Higher Secondary School at Vadipatti town broke a wooden bench in their class and sold part of the timber to a liquor shop and held a `` drinks party.'' The headmaster of the school was agonized over the development which he discussed with the parents of the boys concerned. The bench cost Rs 2,500. The main culprit in the case and the fellow conspirators agreed to compensate the loss to the school by getting a new bench. We are familiar with student demonstrations where furniture was often burnt. But the Class II students of the Vadipatti school did something totally original. How on earth did they get the idea of sawing off a bench on which they sat and selling it to buy liquor. Sometimes exuberance led to destruction of school property. But the Vadipatti students introduced a new, original element in their thinking. Will the school ultimately replace wooden benches with something else? The comic element in our educational system was exposed nearer home, in Mumbai itself. It was acknowledged that scoring high marks and obtaining first class or distinctions was rather difficult in the Commerce faculty. But the 2012 results changed all that. The T B Com results in 2010 and 2011 were 63.7% and 62.9% respectively. The 2012 results registered a spectacular jump, the pass per centage was a whopping 81.5%. Unlike the earlier two years when only 22 and 28% obtained first classes, this year two of every three students achieved this honour. Did the B Com students suddenly become super intelligent to achieve such a spectacular result? Or like Asterix, the comic book hero, were they served with a magic potion which went straight to their brains? The year 2012 saws a new marking system in the Mumbai University. A creditbased semester system and a 60: 40 evaluation system followed. The final examination was for 60 marks and the balance was on the basis of what was called Internal Evaluation and Project work. This marking system was entirely left to the respective faculties of the affiliated colleges. Since colleges were known by the results achieved at the university examinations, the Internal Evaluation was obviously misused to give more and more marks to the students, thereby inflating the results. In most of the cases study projects were nothing more than cut and paste jobs from Internet material, but who bothered? Colleges urged their faculty to compete with one another in giving away very high marks to their own students, thereby making a mockery of assessment based on merit. A lot of universities abroad successfully adopted the internal evaluation system. But the colleges were limited in number, the teachers could watch the progress of their students and really `` guide'' them in their project work which would be original and research- oriented. But in our colleges, the sheer number of students handled by the faculty made such an approach impossible. Right from KG our education system functioned on marks and first class system. Take a look at the SSC and 12h standard results. The toppers' lists grew larger every year and the marks went up and up. Was it possible to score 100 out of 100 in say, English and other descriptive subjects? At the Bachelor of Mass Media ( BMM) level where I taught for nearly 12 years, the internal evaluation system wrought havoc. Individual marks and overall results were boosted up with very high internal marks. Even reputed colleges had to follow the system otherwise, they would lose their top positions to lesser known institutions. I came across hundreds of students who should not have been in the BMM course, they would not read the daily newspapers even at the third year level. Once the results were announced they went about boasting they had secured first classes and even distinction. This was because of the misuse of the internal evaluation system with the obliging faculty giving them 38, 39 or even 40 marks out of 40. Last, we come to the tragedy part where the cases were too numerous. School students thrashed and suffering other severe corporal punishment, made to lick their own urine, sexual harassment and so on. Recently a student was caught copying and his answer book seized by the invigilator. He sought permission to visit the toilet. Once out of the class, he sneaked out to the terrace and jumped to his death. Even more heart- rending was the suicide of a 13- year- old girl who hanged herself because she had fared badly in a maths test. The note she left behind continued to haunt me, " Mein padh padh kar paagal ho gai hoon. Mein ganit samaj nahin patin. Ganat ke alawa zindagi mein kuch nahin. Mein apne maa aur pitaji ko aur sharminda nahin kar sakti. Mein ghutkar nahin jee sakti. Muje bhagwan ke paas jaana hain. Bye Mummy, bye Daddy.'' Do we really need Maths in school for those who could not learn it? Courtesy (visited 31.7.12) http://epaper.fpj.co.in/Details.aspx?id=20268&boxid=111538781